Christian Humility in a Catholic Song

Crazy me. Though atheist I may be, I like to sing Catholic songs on the weekend. It drives my family crazy because they suck. But that's kinda why I like them so much! I remember back in the day when we were finally allowed to sing the Protestant hymn "Amazing Grace" we shouted a great "Hallelujah." Actually it was sort of a whispered, "It's about time."

Anyhoo.

Any former Catholics remember the song "We are the Light of the World" by Jean Greif ? (I have to give the person credit for this song because I don't want to be blamed for it.).

Here's a verse

2. Blessed are they who are meek and humble, They will inherit the earth. Bless us, O Lord, make us meek and humble; Bless us, O Lord, our God.

Refrain We are the light of the world, may our light shine before all, That they may see the good that we do, and give glory to God.

So, tell me, what is so "meek and humble" about saying you're the light of the world?

From what I've read, the current religious take on 'meek and humble' is actually a romanticised version, according (no surprise here) to our modern culture. Originally, it seems, Jesus actually meant that if you retaliate to an attack or resist a theft, maintain any personal material possessions or make public your righteous actions, then you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. It had nothing to do with loving your neighbour as, being a transgressor of these things, your neighbour would be going to hell anyway. It was blind conformity to the will of god to place worship of him above all other considerations. He even said that any of your friends, family or neighbours are to be treated as dead to you if they were not equally committed to worship and selflessness. Your only 'family' are fellow worshippers in the sight of god. Correct me if I'm wrong :)

Thanks for looking that up Glen. I once picked up a hitchhiker who was a Bible scholar. He was one of the most interesting hitchhikers I've ever picked up, as he told me that things had been mistranslated, or willfully mistranslated from the original Aramaic or Greek.

So when I looked up the dictionary definition of meek, I wondered if the original sense was that of submission.